Authors

“Little, safe boxes that contain trauma and violence”: An Interview with Jehanne Dubrow
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“Little, safe boxes that contain trauma and violence”: An Interview with Jehanne Dubrow

Jehanne Dubrow’s latest collection of poems, The Arranged Marriage, tells a difficult and moving story about the poet’s mother and her early life. The narrative gradually comes into focus for the reader through a sequence of beautiful, haunting prose poems—narrow blocks of words the poet likens to “newspaper columns” that convey her “poetic reportage.” Jehanne…

Interactivity and the Game-ification of Books
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Interactivity and the Game-ification of Books

As an undergrad studying creative writing one of the first things I remember learning was the sin of gimmickry. Readers, I was taught, would see through your cleverness—it would be vile to them and they would hate you. But as a kid and teenager my favorite books employed some pretty neat sins and I don’t…

“Poets should always take public transportation”: An Interview with Maureen Thorson
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“Poets should always take public transportation”: An Interview with Maureen Thorson

In her second book of poems, My Resignation, Maureen Thorson immerses us in the story of two people figuring out how to start a new life together. Her poems are finely textured, moving, and often humorous. She has a keen appreciation for the quirky natural detail or odd snippet of conversation that perfectly captures a…

Artistry is a Kind of Citizenship – Ploughshares Interviews Allan Gurganus

Artistry is a Kind of Citizenship – Ploughshares Interviews Allan Gurganus

I’ve been aware of Allan Gurganus since I was a few years old; we hail from the same small town, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and his books lined the shelves of homes I visited, and the local library. Turns out his name was also in the New Yorker, and when I was nine, his book…

Half the World More:  Juan Felipe Herrera and the Centering of Chicana/o Letters
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Half the World More: Juan Felipe Herrera and the Centering of Chicana/o Letters

Juan Felipe Herrera being named our 21st U.S. Poet Laureate is special for a few reasons.  He is the first Latino U.S. Poet Laureate in history, but also an unlikely if necessary one.  It’s no obscure fact that his writing has historically been underappreciated, undercelebrated even. Herrera’s writing has not, historically speaking, been the kind…

American flag in front of a prison camp
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“So that the poem is an act of discovery”: An Interview with Brian Komei Dempster

Brian Komei Dempster received the 15 Bytes Book Award in Poetry for his debut collection, Topaz (Four Way Books, 2013), which examines the experiences of a Japanese American family separated and incarcerated in American World War II prison camps. Through their interwoven narratives, his poems show us how the past never ends: it shapes and is…